Officials have begun prosecuting upwards of 30 business owners, some of the 260 or so who failed to pay the annual general business license fee of $50 to $150.

Municipal bylaws have long regulated specific forms of commerce through fees: A "hawker and peddler" license runs $47. Running a "smoke room" is a bit pricier at $215. The mere "exhibition of goods, persons and things in street" has a $50 tab.

Many ventures increasingly began falling outside the 28 regulated classes, leading the City Council to pass the General Business License Ordinance, effective August 2005.

"The purpose of this section shall be to generate general fund revenue to offset the cost of enforcing existing city ordinances and regulate business activity," Section 110.35 of the Saginaw Code of Ordinances states.

It has worked. Business license revenue reached $20,000 in the 2005 fiscal year, then ballooned to nearly $100,000 each of the next two financial cycles, officials said in budget presentations this month.

Even so, of roughly 1,200 "general" businesses in Saginaw, 200 never registered and 60 who did failed to renew, said City Clerk Diane M. Herman, the license enforcer.

Thirty cases are at various stages in the court system, where judges have in some cases levied up to a $95 court fine. Add to that the $50 license fee that most businesses pay -- it depends on square footage -- and the original cost triples.

"Some have had their day in court, and some have pending hearings," Herman said. "We are in the process of preparing 20 more."

If a business registers once but forgets the next year -- the licenses expire every Sept. 15 -- a 50 percent late fee goes on top of the standard fee, Herman said.

Businesses who never registered enjoy a loophole -- for now: The ordinance forgot to include a late fee for them, Herman said.

Once a judge slaps a fine on a business owner, the court order allows seven days to comply.

But the order may go beyond business as usual, including allowing city officials to use "any means necessary to cease its operations," Herman said.